News f r o m Cather Country

VOLUME 9 ISSUE 1 | S P R I N G 2 0 2 0

IN THIS ISSUE Willa Cather Persevered Through a Pandemic; Willa Cather Persevered Through a Pandemic; Together We Will Too Together We Will Too 1

Brad and Nancy Sherwood As ever, we find inspiration with respect to Celebrating National Poetry Month: During Honor Family Legacy With our current times through the words of one of the month of April, we featured invited authors, $1 Million Lead Gift 2 our nation’s foremost writers. On October 18, poets, actors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and other luminaries, who helped us to Mrs. Laura Bush and David 1919, Willa Cather wrote Ferris Greenslet, McCullough Announce her longtime editor at Houghton Mifflin, celebrate National Poetry Month by sharing Our $6.5 Million “Influenza and moving have consumed a great their appreciative readings of Cather’s verse. Campaign for the Future 3 deal of time, but I expect to begin work on Visit our website for readings by documentary Remembrances of Mildred Claude this Monday next.” Signing herself, as filmmaker Ken Burns; singer/songwriter Bennett Sought 4 she often did, “Faithfully, W. S. C.” Rosanne Cash; actress Marg Helgenberger; former United States Poet Laureate Robert Educator Scholarships Cather experienced influenza herself and Pinsky; and many more. Available 4 lamented the suffering of those she knew, yet Documentary on Willa Cather she very much looked forward to resuming Explore Cather’s Red Cloud Virtually: Our Sculptor Littleton Alston 4 work on the novel that became her Pulitzer virtual tour gives students, teachers, and guests Prize-winner, One of Ours. a content-rich, interactive way to experience Board of Governors Willa Cather’s Red Cloud—from around the Transitions 5 Like Cather, we are adapting for the state or the world! Featuring historic photos, Jack Cather Materials Now moment while looking optimistically to audio and video scenes from Cather’s work, Available for Research 6 the future. What we enjoy most about our and interviews with noted Cather scholars, the An Immersive Cather work is welcoming guests from across the Virtual Tour walks visitors through four of Red Weekend in Taos 7 country to the National Willa Cather Center. Cloud’s most important Cather sites and places these sites in context with Cather’s fiction. Begin Intern Makes Important While the Center and our historic sites Archival Discovery 7 are temporarily closed, we remain exploring at www.virtualcather.org. focused on fulfilling our Coming Up! 8 mission to promote Willa Cather’s legacy through Visit us online at www.willacather.org to browse our bookstore or sign up education, preservation, and for our e-Newsletter. the arts. We miss seeing visitors explore Willa Cather’s world, and we look forward to the day we can gather again. Until then, there are some wonderful things happening online—and more to look forward to—that we thought you would enjoy: continued on next page Willa Cather Persevered Through a Pandemic; Together We Will Too continued from front page

Guided Tours from Home: Join Rachel Olsen, our dedicated to the pleasures of her artistry: revealing essays education coordinator and tour guide, for “Tuesday Tours” exploring her influences and times, notice of new Cather of the Willa Cather Historic Sites. Part I and Part II of discoveries and resources, as well as news of our activities in the Willa Cather Childhood Home tour are now posted Red Cloud and beyond. on our YouTube channel. Share your experience using the Show Your Support: As we work remotely, the National hashtag #MuseumFromHome while visiting this National Willa Cather Center continues to deliver educational and Historic Landmark. inspirational content. You are invited to support the promotion Browse the Willa Cather Review: Over 180 issues of the of Cather’s legacy from afar. Making a donation and shopping Review are fully and freely accessible at www.willacather.org. our online bookstore are both excellent ways to support our Our unique journal offers original work focused on Cather and mission while social distancing. Visit us at www.willacather.org.

Brad and Nancy Sherwood Honor Family Legacy With $1 million Lead Gift to Current Campaign Initiative

“Great-grandmother Carrie Miner Sherwood was a visionary and a collector. A life-long friend of Willa Cather, she saved Cather’s letters and Cather family artifacts in her attic with the hope there would one day be a place for them. We believe in the mission of the Willa Cather Foundation and want to further this legacy. This campaign preserves the historic sites associated with Cather’s life and in Red Cloud and enables the Foundation to expand its outreach and programming across the country. We hope you’ll join us in supporting it.” —Brad and Nancy Sherwood Lead Donors

Carrie Miner Sherwood, pictured with John G. Neihardt at the dedication of the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial in 1962.

A few weeks into the quiet phase of a new campaign, Executive Brad and Nancy’s incredible generosity and willingness to make Director Ashley Olson received a phone call that would greatly a leadership gift not only honored Carrie Miner Sherwood’s impact the trajectory of the Willa Cather Foundation and our dedication to the Foundation and her long friendship with Willa mission-driven work. On the other end of the line was Brad Cather, but the gift also paved the way for the campaign success that Sherwood, great-grandson of founding board member Carrie would follow. [Note: the campaign has now raised over $4.74 million Miner Sherwood, a lifelong friend of Willa Cather. Brad had and sits at 73% of goal; see accompanying article.] “The Sherwood reviewed the materials he and wife Nancy were provided about gift was a defining moment,” said Executive Director Ashley Olson. our Campaign for the Future—an integrated fundraising initiative “We transitioned from dreaming about what we wanted to do and aimed at achieving the Foundation’s strategic goals of historic site where we wanted the Foundation to be in five years, to formulating restoration, program expansion, enhanced visitor experiences, and and executing our plans.” She added, “I’m beyond grateful that the endowment growth. “I’d like to give you a million dollars,” Brad Sherwoods shared our vision and were willing and able to make a said. He continued, “See what you can do to leverage that.” significant investment in shaping our future.”

2 News from Cather Country | Spring 2020 Mrs. Laura Bush and David McCullough Help to Announce Our Campaign for the Future

On January 28, just one year after assuming ownership of six Cather-related historic sites and nearly 8,000 artifacts from History Nebraska, we announced our Campaign for the Future. To date, we’ve raised $4.74 million, or 73% of our $6.5 million goal. Former First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Laura Bush is graciously serving as the Honorary National Chair for the campaign, and she helped to announce the campaign’s public phase. Mrs. Bush, who spoke at our dedication of the National Willa Cather Center in 2017, stated, “Through Willa Cather’s writing, we have a better understanding of one of the most remarkable and compelling periods in American history.” She continued, “The sites and collections that make up the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud are cultural treasures. Your generosity ensures that our children and grandchildren will be able to travel back in time to hear the ‘nimble air’ and learn from Willa Cather’s example for many generations to come.” In addition to Mrs. Bush, writer and historian David McCullough noted, “The marvelous thing about going to Red Cloud, Nebraska, is you can walk right into Willa Cather’s world. There’s the house she lived in, the bank, the opera house, the railroad depot, and the landscape. It’s one of my favorite places in all of America.” “Nebraskans have been very generous because they know we are fortunate to be home to such an iconic author,” said Ashley Olson, executive director. “We have had strong support from longtime friends and foundations and now hope to include individuals from across the country who appreciate Cather’s literature and Mrs. Laura Bush visits the Willa Cather Childhood Home in 2017. Photo courtesy of Shane Booth. value our work.” Campaign funds will be used to restore eight historic properties, conserve newly acquired collection materials, expand educational programming, add exhibits, upgrade site interpretation, and invest in a downtown boutique hotel that will allow visitors to stay longer and explore more of Cather’s Red Cloud. Olson said the highest historic site restoration priorities are the Willa Cather Childhood Home and the Pavelka Farmstead, which is a setting in Cather’s most celebrated novel, My Ántonia. Adding to the success of the campaign is a Save America’s Treasures grant of $415,000 from the National Park Service for restoration of the Willa Cather Childhood Home—the jewel in the crown of the Foundation’s historic sites and The Pavelka Farmstead, pictured here with a new roof. a National Historic Landmark. The grant requires a 1:1 match in nonfederal funds. The improvement was made possible through the support of Sydney Green, Evelyn Funda, Abigail Loomis, and We invite you to join in this exciting endeavor by making a donation or pledge Antonette Turner. We will soon begin work to restore the home to its period of significance (1905-1916). (payable over five years). Each year, the National Willa Cather Center and Red Cloud host visitors from an average of forty-eight states and five counties; your generosity will enable us to enhance programming and visitor experiences for every single one of them. No American author society boasts a larger collection of nationally designated historic sites than the National Willa Cather Center, making this campaign a unique and enduring investment opportunity. Pledge forms are available by contacting Ashley Olson at (402) 746-2653 or [email protected]. To donate, send your contribution, clearly labeled Campaign for the Future to the Willa Cather Foundation, 413 N. Webster, Red Cloud, NE 68970. www.WillaCather.org 3 Remembrances of Mildred Bennett Sought

In collaboration with the National Willa Cather figure who deserves greater attention. To do Center, author Will Fellows is working to bring so, Fellows hopes to call on those who knew forth a publication on the vision, passion, and her, and her work, best. persistence of our founder, Mildred Rhoads “I intend to make use of materials in the Bennett (1909-1989). Bennett’s work to National Willa Cather Center archives, and preserve key elements of Willa Cather’s early to glean information and insight from the years in Nebraska began in the 1940s, and she published and unpublished texts of Bennett’s had many dedicated collaborators over the autobiography. But my first priority in this decades. One of them, Ron Hull, states in his project is to interview individuals who knew memoir that Mildred Bennett “could have Mildred Bennett,” Fellows said. literally stepped out of a Willa Cather novel. Like some of Cather’s heroines, Mildred was a “Even if you think you have nothing extraordinary to share with me regarding strong, fiercely independent, intelligent woman your memories of Mildred Bennett,” Fellows who loved the land and planted her roots deeply Mildred Bennett, charismatic founder of the Willa Cather Foundation. continued, “I hope you will tell me what you can. in the soil of Webster County, Nebraska.” Everything, however seemingly unremarkable, With a longstanding interest in the world of Willa Cather and in contributes to a richer composite portrait.” If you have information the organization that preserves and interprets that world for those or are interested in being interviewed, you can reach Will Fellows of us living today, Fellows considers Bennett to be a fascinating at [email protected] or at (414) 208-9730.

Educator Scholarships Available

To advance our educational mission, the National Willa Cather complementary registrations to the virtual Willa Cather Center created the Educators Scholarship in 2016. With Spring Conference. Due to COVID-19-related changes in our support of the Thistlewood Foundation, this scholarship allows program delivery, we will also arrange a free two-day stay at a educators to experience the Cather historic sites, the cultural Cather historic property, town and country tours, and tickets opportunities, the growing body Cather scholarship, and the to an upcoming Red Cloud Opera House program, as well as a camaraderie that our Cather community offers. These awards grant to help offset the cost of travel, at a future date. aim to facilitate a dynamic exchange of ideas between Cather To apply, please submit your application by May 15. researchers and educators, upon whom we rely for our next Application forms are available at www.willacather.org and generation of Cather readers. questions may be directed to education specialist Rachel This year, we will award three teachers or administrators Olsen, at (402) 746-2653 or [email protected].

Documentary on Willa Cather Sculptor Littleton Alston

Nebraska Educational Television recently aired a documentary sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. on sculptor Littleton Alston, who was selected, through a To gather footage for the documentary, the film crew— national competition, to create a statue of Willa Cather for led by producer Christine Lesiak—made an appearance at the National Statuary Hall Collection. A Sculpted Life, traces our 64th annual Spring Conference last year in Red Cloud. Alston’s journey from his childhood in Washington, D.C., to There Alston unveiled the competition-winning maquette his remarkable career as an artist and Associate Professor of continued on next page

4 News from Cather Country | Spring 2020 of Willa Cather to the appreciative crowd. Also featured in the documentary is a visit to Alston’s Omaha studio, where members of the Willa Cather National Statuary Hall Committee and statue benefactor Laurie Smith Camp joined leadership of the Willa Cather Foundation to review the second, and final, maquette before Alston began work on the full size sculpture. This compelling film also reveals how Alston, an African- American boy growing up in a disadvantaged section of Washington, D.C., was influenced by this “city of statues.” From his neighborhood, he could see the U.S. Capitol dome, with its sculpture atop called “Freedom.” He often went with his brother to hear the tours of the Capitol and was amazed by the sculptures of the “Olympian Gods that didn’t look at all like me.” These experiences helped to shape his interests in art, history, and sculptural form. For his Cather commission, Alston studied the author’s life and works extensively. “She came to me through her words—that’s when I felt like I was sculpting her,” Alston said. “Knowing of her is one thing, knowing her is another”— something the sculptor admitted would take a lifetime. “I look at the maquette as a poem, and then I see the four-foot version as a short story,” Alston said at last year’s maquette reveal at Spring Conference. “Then the seven-foot bronze version will Littleton Alston, pictured in his studio beside the four-foot Willa Cather be the novel,” he added. maquette. When Willa Cather’s statue is installed as part of the collection. He hopes that his Cather sculpture will one day National Statuary Hall Collection, she will become one of inspire another young African-American to be the second. less than a dozen women represented. Alston will become the You can view the documentary on the NET Nebraska website first African-American sculptor to have his work in the at www.NETNebraska.org.

Board of Governors Transitions

Please join us in welcoming Melissa J. Homestead to our Board of Governors as an ex-officio member representing the Cather Project. Homestead is Professor of English and Program Faculty in Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she serves as Director of the Cather Project and Associate Editor of The Complete Letters of Willa Cather: A Digital Edition. She has published widely on American women’s writing from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, and her forthcoming book The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather and Edith Lewis will be published by Oxford University Press on February 1, 2021. Homestead is also president of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society.

Melissa J. Homestead The Willa Cather Foundation would also like to thank retiring board members Ramón Guerra and Guy Reynolds for their time and service on our Board of Governors. Guerra is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and Reynolds is the former director of the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he is professor and chair of the Undergraduate Program and Curriculum Committee for the Department of English.

www.WillaCather.org 5 Jack Cather Materials Now Available for Research

An exciting gift made in honor The Saturday Evening Post in 1901. of the John E. (Jack) and Irma Cather’s poem “Are You Sleeping, Cather Family has reached Red Little Brother?” was dedicated Cloud and is now available to to him, and it’s clear from this researchers. A collection of collection that the two shared a eleven inscribed books, many love of drama, of verse, and many with the addition of manuscript fond memories. verse, were given by Willa Cather Jack and Irma Cather’s daughters, to her youngest brother Jack. Catherine Cather Lowell and These books, along with dozens Ella Cather Lewis, were members of photographs of the family and of our Board of Governors and the early days of the WCPM, and made the family’s first donations copies of poem drafts, provide of collection items during their new insights into Cather’s lifetimes. In more recent years, the relationship with her brother as estate’s executor has worked to well as revealing new information make additional materials available. about Cather’s poetry. When Many thanks are due to Beverly combined with our recent poetry O’Neill for her safekeeping of manuscript acquisitions and Hard cover illustrated children’s book of verse, with inscription “To Jack from Willa at Christmastime 1899.” these precious materials. original poems and hand edits in our legacy WCPM collections, The National Willa Cather the National Willa Cather Center now offers researchers Center houses the earliest Cather collections and continues a significant body of primary resources for the study of to add to its growing collection of letters, photographs, artwork, Cather’s poetry. and personal items, which we make available to scholars and researchers. Research requests can be made via email. Please Jack Cather, sometimes referred to in these materials as “Jack- contact our archivist, Tracy Tucker, at [email protected] a-boy,” was Willa Cather’s youngest sibling. Willa Cather or call (402) 746-2653 to make arrangements. used “Jack-a-Boy” as the title of a short story appearing in

A playful poem or portion thereof written by Cather that reads: No, I never saw a rabbit climb a tree, and I never saw a lobster ride a flea, but I used to know a goat who wore a reefer coat, And he always got his lessons after tea!

6 News from Cather Country | Spring 2020 An Immersive Cather Weekend in Taos

We’re excited to share a brand-new opportunity to experience Martinez Hacienda and Taos Pueblo, the Fechin House and Cather in context—join us in Taos, New Mexico, for a 3-day, the Millicent Rogers museum and more; our time together 3-night excursion, November 12–15, 2020! We’ll explore will be hosted by the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, where the beautiful mountain town and the best of its historic and Cather herself was a guest. arts offerings, while learning about Cather’s time in New Taos has long been considered a nexus of countercultural Mexico. We’ll discuss and share from Cather’s Death Comes thought, even before the term was coined in the 1960s. for the Archbishop and The Professor’s House, as well as a host When Mabel Dodge settled in Taos and began to invite her of selected outside readings, in addition to touring the Father friends and artists from the East in 1918, she did so with the idea of establishing not just an artists’ colony but a completely different lifestyle. Later, her house would be purchased by Dennis Hopper, who had his own vision of the counterculture lifestyle. “Willa Cather and the Counterculture” explores Cather’s relationship with Taos and its resident artists—both good and bad—alongside the artists’ relationship to the Taos area itself. This event will be limited to thirty guests based on house capacity, so plan to register early! A preliminary schedule of the event and registration details are available on our website; for questions about the program, please contact Education Director Tracy Tucker at [email protected]. The Mabel Dodge Luhan House.

Intern Makes Important Archival Discovery

Donna Devlin, 2018 National Willa Cather Center intern History but specializes in Great Plains and legal history, was and current Ph.D. student in History at the University of the perfect candidate for the job. Nebraska–Lincoln, recently published new and ground-breaking The rediscovery of Anna’s story—a story of sexual assault and of information about Anna Sadilek Pavelka, the prototype for legal confrontation—is a rediscovery of a larger historical pattern Ántonia Shimerda in Cather’s My Ántonia. Writing for the of abuse perpetuated against young immigrant women across the Willa Cather Review, Devlin reveals the methods of her research Great Plains. While we believe this opens new doors for Cather into the life of Cather’s lifelong friend. scholars to re-interpret My Ántonia and Cather’s authorial choices The clues were held in Mildred Bennett’s original research in telling Anna’s story in fiction, we also look forward to Donna’s files in our archives; in those files, Bennett has typed a note continued research into the legal history of this darker side of our that suggested Anna Sadilek gave birth to a child out of Great Plains story. wedlock—but details of the birth didn’t correspond with You can read Donna’s story online in the Willa Cather Review, what Cather biographers had long ago established about volume 61.3. To receive a print copy of the Review, please become Anna’s life. The card also suggested legal proceedings and a member by joining online at www.willacather.org or settlements, which were, Devlin believed, the logical place calling (402) 746-2653. Single issues of the Review are also to try to verify the card’s information. Devlin, who studies available for purchase through our bookstore. www.WillaCather.org 7 Board Officers President: Glenda J. Pierce, Lincoln, NE Vice President: Robert Thacker, Fort Collins, CO Secretary: Nancy Sherwood, Omaha, NE Treasurer: C. Kay Stahly, Kearney, NE Past President: Marion Arneson, Wayne, NE Board of Governors The National Willa Cather Center Virgil Albertini, Fairway, KS 413 North Webster Street Mark W. Bostock, Malcolm, NE Red Cloud, NE 68970 Marian Fey, Omaha, NE Max Frazier, Grand Lake, CO Thomas Reese Gallagher, New York, NY Sarah Baker Hansen, Omaha, NE Richard C. Harris, Sea Cliff, NY Melissa J. Homestead, Lincoln NE James Jaap, Pittsburgh, PA Andrew Jewell, Lincoln, NE Charles Johanningsmeier, Omaha, NE Ruth H. Keene, Omaha, NE Lynette Krieger, Hastings, NE Fritz Mountford, Hastings, NE Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Manlius, NY Diane Prenatt, Indianapolis, IN Ann Romines, Alexandria, VA Steve Shively, Lincoln, NE Amy Springer, Red Cloud, NE Sally Stich, Denver, CO Lu Williams, Red Cloud, NE John A (Jay) Yost, New York, NY Advisory Council Bruce P. Baker II, Omaha, NE Laurie Smith Camp, Omaha, NE James L. Fitzgibbon, Red Cloud, NE David B. Garwood, Red Cloud, NE Joel Geyer, Lincoln, NE Jane Renner Hood, Lincoln, NE Ron Hull, Lincoln, NE Betty Kort, Hastings, NE Mellanee Kvasnicka, LaVista, NE Lucia Woods Lindley, New York, NY Susan Maher, Duluth, MN Gary L. Meyer, Red Cloud, NE John J. Murphy, Newton, MA Charles A. Peek, Kearney, NE Nancy S. Picchi, New York, NY Rhonda Seacrest, Lincoln, NE The Virtual 65th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference James P. Southwick, Heber City, UT John N. Swift, Whittier, CA Un/Tethered: Cather on the Cusp of the 1920s Gary W. Thompson, Lincoln, NE June 4-6, 2020 Joseph R. Urgo, Asheville, NC Staff Nebraska Chamber Players Ashley Olson, Executive Director Christian Ellenwood’s competition-winning new work inspired by Cather’s Tracy Tucker, Education Director & Archivist One of Ours. Rachel Olsen, Education Coordinator Currently postponed, new date TBA Jill Swartzendruber, Finance & Business Manager Jarrod McCartney, Tourism & Commerce Director Catherine Pond, Marketing Coordinator Missoula Children’s Theatre Carla Post, Program Coordinator The Snow Queen Jim Owens, Sites Manager July 31, at 5:30 p.m. and August 1, at 2:00 p.m. LauraLea Johnson, Administrative Assistant Angela Duca, Bookstore Clerk Visit us online at www.willacather.org for the latest information on upcoming events. Linda Hitchler, Tour Guide COMING UP! Janet Maruhn, Tour Guide Karin Prellwitz, Facilities Assistant Jennifer Schriner, Facilities Assistant Alexis Strobl, Tour Guide Arts programming presented with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Cheryl Wilson, Tour Guide

8 News from Cather Country | Spring 2020